A new generation of gaming is almost upon us, which of course means better graphics, innovative technology and exciting new games, but the move to the next generation won't be without it's casualties. This generation (just like every generation before it) will be the death of several long-running franchises.

Here are five series that will either be dead (or at the very least drastically diminished) by the time this upcoming generation is through...

Resident Evil

It seems like a strange thing to say considering it was the series' most acclaimed entry, but Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami royally screwed his series over when he made Resident Evil 4.

With Resident Evil 4 the series went from survival-horror to triple-A blockbuster, which was okay during the simpler times of the PS2-era, but as triple-A games become increasingly bloated Resident Evil has had to shed more and more of it's identity to keep up. Resident Evil 6, a game that was 95% bland blockbuster game-product and (maybe) 5% Resident Evil was the breaking point.

So now Resident Evil finds itself at an impossible crossroads. If the series wants to continue playing the with the big boys, the tattered remains of its soul will be lost, but is Capcom willing to scale way, way back in order to return Resident Evil to it's horror roots? Probably not. Resident Evil 7 will likely be another compromise -- a game that won't be up to next-gen triple-A standards, but probably won't thrill horror fans either. Resident Evil may continue to limp on, but it's status as a major, triple-A series ends this generation.

Castlevania

The Castlevania series was already staggering along on its last legs heading into this generation, but it received a bit of a reprieve when Hideo Kojima decided to take pity on the series with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Well, now the Lords of Shadow sub-series is coming to an end -- developer MercurySteam is moving on and Kojima has more important things to worry about. The old Castlevania team seems to have disbanded, so any new 2D Castlevanias are probably out of the question.

I'm sure another 3D Castlevania will be attempted, but well, this is Konami we're talking about. It won't be good. If they hadn't signed Kojima to a lifelong blood contract back in the 80s the company would be dead many times over by now.

F-Zero

If I had to pick a Nintendo franchise to not survive the upcoming console generation it'd be F-Zero. Shigeru Miyamoto has said he's not sure what the hell to do with the series and it seems like a lot of F-Zero's lifeblood is being siphoned off and injected into Mario Kart 8. It certainly seems like Nintendo is readying the series for the scrap heap.

Of course, Nintendo might still do another F-Zero just to fill out the Wii U's uh, roomy release calendar, but it probably won't be terribly inspired, and there's a good chance it will be the last.

WWE

While I freely admit to wasting a frankly obscene amount of my life playing WWE wrestling games over the years, let's be real -- the series make Madden look like a poster boy for innovation. Will long-time WWE developer Yuke's be able to pull their act together and actually come up with a new engine for the next generation? I have my doubts.

WWE's move to 2K Games probably won't help their fortunes either. No longer being tied to the hapless THQ may seem like a good thing, but at least WWE was the big fish in a small pond with THQ. Now they're being published by a company that also owns Grand Theft freakin' Auto. This is a company that lets its Major League Baseball games wilt on the vine because they have better things to pay attention to. A pro-graps sim is not going to be their top priority. I'm afraid s--tty phones games where a Rock made of five polygons fights zombies or whatever may be your only WWE gaming option by the time this upcoming generation is done.

Final Fantasy

I don't need to tell you Final Fantasy is in trouble. Final Fantasy XIV was a debacle and Final Fantasy XIII has needed two re-tries to (sort of) get things right. The upcoming Final Fantasy XV is just a renamed Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a game Square-Enix has been toiling away on since 2006. So yes, when it (optimistically) comes out in 2014 it will have been in the works for over eight years.

What the hell is Square-Enix going to do for Final Fantasy XVI? I don't think they have any other eight-year-old games sitting in the closet for them to rename. I honestly don't think they have any idea of what to do next -- I think the plan is to just to keep smiling until Final Fantasy XV comes out and then everyone in the company commits mass seppuku. Or the company just goes mobile-only. Same thing basically.

Okay, now it's your turn to get out the crystal ball -- what series do you see being done in by this upcoming generation?

As odd as it is to say, Shattered Memories on the Wii was excellent. It’s also pretty much all we have left in the true survival-horror genre which is enough for me to wager that it will be sticking around.

I don’t think it makes sense to blame RE 4, though. If RE 6 is where you think it totally jumped the shark, then blame that specific game. RE 4 breathed new, awesome life into the series, and it still had a good deal of it left in 5. But I have no problems with them scaling it back and moving to survival horror again. I think game budgets are getting stupid, especially when Square Enix brands a 3 million+ seller a “failure.”

I’ll just be over here pining for a time when Square Enix preferred substance to style. Maybe that nostalgia is merely a residual glint in my imagination that surfaces only when I dream…holy fuck, is that the plot to Final Fantasy X?

Konami at least has some good games/ideas even if they are 80% Kojima. Capcom seems to be trying to mimic the Western market without having any idea how the Western market works. All their new games feel like the video game equivalent of punching a paragraph through google translate.

In regards to RE4, Yes the tone and mechanics of the game changed, but let’s be honest, does ANYONE really remember or even care about any RE game made between 3 and 4? The truth of the matter is, if Shinji Mikami hadn’t left Capcom after RE4, 5 and 6 would’ve been even better than 4. That game still had plenty of scares, suspense, and overall horror tone. And had he stuck around, 5 and 6 would’ve had it to.
But FWIW, I remember hearing about a recent article where Capcom has realized their mistakes, and are going back to horror for 7. Time will tell…

The theme here is that none of these games could be considered “cartoony” at all. Kids like cartoons, and they’ll just keep buying that stuff right up, no matter how terrible it is. Examples being Sonic the Hedgehog, Rayman, Spyro, etc. All fairly terrible compared to what they once were, yet still around.

I keep waiting for people to get sick of Modern Battlefield Combat 2: The Zombie Ghost Reckoning. I’m hoping that’s this generation.

The difference is those “cartoony” games have marketable characters, so they’ll keep making games based on them just to keep the flow of mechandise going. Rayman might die this next generation, but that series is such a passion project it will probably continue in some form.

I remember back in the day I would get so pumped for Final Fantasy games. Now when I hear a new one is coming out I just think, “Oh didn’t know they still made those.” And I thought Blizzard was bad at taking forever to make games.

Resident Evil and Final Fantasy games have been around for 20 years I don’t see the franchise vanishing anytime in the future. Especially if Capcom sticks to what they say and goes back to the survival horror roots of what Resident Evil used to be.

This is a fairly depressing list, but I totally understand how these franchises could be dead.

What really kills me and puts me into auto-denial is F-Zero. I was just thinking yesterday abt how id kill for a new F-zero, between the WiiU having HD and all the goofy things you can do with the controller that someone at Nintendo could/should have come up with a next gen F-Zero by now. Sigh.

I thought DmC was fun, not amazing but fun but I think it will def survive atleast one more generation even if Capcom had to lower their projected sales. Interesting article at Forbes about it [www.forbes.com]

I liked Revelations a lot too — I wrote a post or two praising it. But it’s not the future of the series. They were able to scale way back and do horror again because it started as a handheld game, but I doubt that will fly with the next major console entry in the series.

I really feel that the entire game industry is suffering a sort of identity crisis.

Even critically acclaimed games that were released thisq year weren’t necessarily successful enough to warrant the following other game series had, which will effect how much emphasis is placed on future game

Resident Evil 4 is in my top 5 G.O.A.T.; I try and play through it once a year. I tried to like 5, but it just seemed like a shallow attempted to clone 4. I legitimately enjoyed 6, especially Leon’s story, but I haven’t had any desire to go back and play it like I do 4.

It’s really hard to count franchises out – they may reboot successfully like Tomb Raider and reinvent themselves. Who would have thought a few years ago that a kickass Tomb Raider would EVER happen again?

Yes, exactly! If there’s still awareness of the brand, they will reboot it until the end of time. And that’s okay, as long as the product is done well. All of these series will continue and most definitely take advantage of a new gen to reestablish itself. F-Zero is the least likely to get a new installment, and even that will continue in some form. It may take a while, but it’ll happen.

Hmm mostly japanese IPs I find that a little funny since Gears of War, God of War, Dead Space, Uncharted did lost a bit of steam with their follow ups. These on the other hand have more nostalgic value than the others. So it could be the lay dormant for a few years but can’t think they’ll likely die for good.

Uncharted I think will lay fallow for a while. It’s a big series but I think even Sony was taken aback at just how incredibly successful The Last Of Us was. That was a game that topped the charts for six straight weeks selling on just one console, and moved 3.4 million copies during that time. That’s pretty major money from an original IP.

Gears of War, dead. God of War, probably not. Dead Space, it’s EA so even if it’s not dead it might as well be.

If Square Enix wants to turn themselves around, or at least give themselves some breathing room, just make a full fledged next gen remake of FF7. People have been clamoring for it since the PS3 teaser and I guarantee it will sell like Heisenberg’s blue meth.